Complaint Review: Bank of America Escrow Account Review - Wilmington Delaware

Your words are exactly the same BS I hear spouted when I contacted BACS (COUNTRYWIDE).  But your first line confuses me further:  "You are one the the unfortunate people who had their COUNTRYWIDE mortgage purchased by Bank of America".  This is the exact OPPOSITE of my situation.  Ours was always held by BOA and then we received notice they were selling off all their home loan servicing to what they called BACS Home Loan Servicing, LP.  And gave us a new mortgage number.  It was only when I saw my mortgage payment come back across posted to my bank detail that i new BACS was COUNTRYWIDE.  I thought they were as defunct and extinct as Enron!  I knew they themselves had declared bankruptcy several years ago and obviously had now received bailout money.  Unless you have a typo, I would kill to have my mortgage back at BOA but they will not talk with me and route all calls to countrywide.  But here is where the real confusion comes in (and someone with any knowledge of how this happened, when it happened and WHO it happened to, please educate me):

All mortgage statements, etc and my payment account from my credit union are all online at bankofamerica.com!  I get notices from bank of America and return addresses of by last count 4 different locations.  remittance addresses to.  And the information i get from web mail with boa online is different that the idiots spout at countrywide.  And get this:  I had sent two payments from my own credit union's web bill pay to be sent to the address the representative told me to set it up with. it was Texas.  It was those payments that were mis-applied and it was those payments that when my bank posted the payment,the detail had countrywide.  that again, is when i learned we were being hi-jacked not by anything bank of america, but by countrywide - no matter how they try to hide it and misrepresent themselves on the phone.

A new twist to add to the confusion:  On Tuesday, I broke down and had set up our accounts so i could pay directly out of my online bankofamerica.com web site.  I did so in hopes it would be applied properly. I have not yet checked that, but I do know the payment was taken ACH immediately out of my credit union account after i set it up via bank of amercia's web site. i get email alerts sent whenever a transaction has posted that has BANK OF AMERICA.  Sure enough, that evening, my text alert came saying a transaction posted by BANK OF AMERICA!  i also have an alert set up for anything that posts as countrywide.  no countrywide this time, for when i paid from boa's web site, it came back as payment to bank of america.

So you tell me:  who the hell is on first, second, and third?  it still seems that BOA, as someone suggested, retains 'ownership' of the mortgage, but the servicing is now being done by countrywide.  but like you say, BOA will not speak with us, not even when i try to contact them their information is incorrect when they sent notice they had yet to receive proof of homeowners!  I FINALLY got hold to their insurance department in PA. Thank god not yahoos in California. And it was bank of america. And she had the latest info my homeowners agent faxed over.  I had to have the agent send it since i cannot speak with anyone at bank of america -i am always sent to california/countrywide/bacs.  the bank of america's rep in the insurance department verified that it is Not in escrow.  not yet anyway, I told her statements from BACS Home Servicing show countrywide has gone ahead and escrowed NEXT year's annual premium!  That would be the bill whee the policy renews Aug. 2010!  remember, i am talking with bank of america this week.  Even when i told her this, she said she saw nothing about any escrow of insurance - now or future.  Wha????

Since my last posting, I also found proof where I paid all property taxes in early September.  I had owed for some dogs i forgot to add, plus the 2008 tax bill for property in MY name only that is adjacent to this, but not on this deed,and it is owned free and clear. My dad usually pays it, but he had been ill (passed last week) and missed paying that one. Whatever they did with the principle. the change of 30 to 20 years, etc, was done in October the payments to 'reinstate the account' to normal were posted 10/5 and 10/6.  A receipt and letter from boa states this now brings the loan current and though October.

When in November, i received ANOTHER letter from BACS they had done another review and found concerns. did not state what they were, but the escrow accounts were now back on.  At the end of December, another review found our taxes were delinquent.  for what year? 2012?  then i see posted online that On Dec 15, they paid the tax bill that is not even due until Jan 5.  I went ballistic and had to pay to stop payment on my property tax check I sent out 2 days prior. 

I called Countrywide, BACS, whatever and asked what would be the criteria that would give them the right to put these accounts in escrow when they have always been paid for by us. She first said, you were a fannie or freddie or Hud or making home affordable program.  "WRONG", so then she said, your homeowners must have lapsed or you had none.  again, "WRONG".  She then said, the only other reason would be that they found your taxes to be delinquent. And once more, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!  The tax bill for 2009 had come out in August and was not due until Jan 5th.  That one i held off paying because i had other expenses and knew i had time.  If this is the case, that they escrow because of 'delinquent taxes' - i can prove they were NOT and are not considered late until AFTER jan 5, 2010.

And then I threw out a question that flew over her head:  If our taxes HAD been delinquent, then that means that whatever YOU claim is modification done this fall would have hit a snag.  because if it is found that taxes are owed, then you either must produce proof that you have paid it, or they will be escrowed, correct?  She agreed.  So, I came at her, "Tell me how, then, taxes on our mortgage DID NOT INClUDE escrow?"  Robot that she was, did a circle-f*& and came  back to it HAD to be that your homeowners did not meet requirements (it is over 3x the amount they require), or your mortgage is an MHA.  I informed her that I had called their very own number for both MHA and the other program and they could not find it in ANY program anywhere - not even a phone number from an inquiry.  Exasperated, she got snippy and said, "I don't know, but all our loans are required to carry an escrow and on Dec. 15th, we went ahead and paid your property taxes and they are now in your escrow."

I now know of course, that not only did they pay taxes early to get them into escrow, but I guess having no other means to escrow homeowners, they went ahead and added in 2010's homeowners. payments are now right at $900 and i would be paying current and future homeowners, plus taxes that were never delinquent and never before had been escrowed.

Did they pay the taxes since we met none of the criteria that would have give them the right to change the terms to 'protect them'. we are not under any of these programs.  our mortgage is still owned by and some piece of it is still overseen by bank of america. the difference in how the payments come back posted on the detail line prove our mortgage has been hi-jacked somehow.  and i have yet to see what loophole BOA or countrywide used. the loan was not modified - it had payments that boa requested, received before the selling off of any mortgages. 

All I know is bank of america's typed receipt and letter verifying payments and reinstate of account as caught up was immediately followed up by the notice of the newly formed BACS, with this new statement showing escrow, the 20-years and new principle.  And they had done their first 'review' whereupon these changes had to be made based on their findings.  WHAT findings?

Up though December, I would send secure email to bankofamerica.com after calling and getting the escrow nightmare from countrywide.  From October through December, it was back and forth about the escrow of homeowners. that was the first time they either lost it, or the information we were given to send it to ended up not at BOA, but BACS.  Finally, it was settled up, and I have their email reply to this effect, that the escrow had been removed, as this account was to have no escrow and sorry for the hassle, etc, etc.  the next day, there is another 'review' and the result of that is  this mortgage has the escrow accounts!  Yet I try to call and speak to the customer service department that was behind the emails.  The second I give them the loan number, I am sent to bacs - not boa - in california -who had done by now four different 'reviews' and reclassified the loan four different times.  When i read the CURRENT mailings from bank of america, their story was totally different, with the same 'your mortgage must has escrow due new federal....' and you know the rest of THAT timely story!

My brother-in-law (acting as our agent) somehow reached texas and THEIR information (this is bank of america) showed something quite different.  thought both sides seems to have changed the loan (unknown to us and there is no contract to support it), this place in Texas, like PA, still showed it as a no -escrow conventional mortgage.  but they had no record of our homeowners!  Yet california HAD that information!  He gave my brother-in-law his direct line, name, department and said for me to call him immediately.

Do you think i could ever get through to this man?  I called him immediately after my relative did, for he said he could help perhaps fix this mess.  that for all he could see, it was still owned and serviced by THEM.  He did not answer his phone, and the d**n voicemail routed your call to california - countrywide!  When I asked where I was calling, they said BACS.  I rephrased 'No - WHERE are you located?"  "California" was the response.  they asked for my loan number and i refused.  they got testy and i told them the name, department, the departments routing extension, even the FAX number I provided.  I said i was to return a call.  That is when countryside/bacs in CA told me they never heard of any location in Texas, there was no 'center' in texas that handled their mortgages and knew no one by that name, nor did they have any record of that department's extension number!  I faxed this man in texas, but for all i know it went to california as well, for i never heard from him.  And since BACS/Countrywide had the homeowners, I did not follow thru with BOA in Texas.

I couldn't - could never get through. So that was when bank of america - not BACS sends a letter 12/29-that as of 12/11 (about the time I was trying to call texas) -  no proof of insurance had been received, 'my policy was canceled'. That was the call I made this week -finally getting a real BOA person on the phone and found out even more interesting facts to make this whole thing even more confusing!

WOW!  One doesn't know the other exists, yet they are servicing/destroying their loans?  they again asked for my loan number and I refused, saying, "You REALLY do not want to speak with me, and I will NOT speak with California about my mortgage."  And like you, she informed me I HAD to speak with them - there was no one else.  I came back with something totally unprintable and hung up. I refuse to speak with California.

So the bank of america located i know at least in texas, the payments go (the online site I believe said) to Delaware.  Another remittance said texas.  none say california.  the insurance is bank of america's' and is in PA.  since SHE - looking at the same info this guy in Texas must have - said the insurance is not escrowed, I asked about the taxes. she said those do seem to be escrowed for some reason and when i told her they paid taxes not yet due, she was confused, but said that part was not her department.  I would have to call customer service and I knew where THAT call would end up, so I never followed though.

My question is this:  WHY do we have to be the victims and have our mortgage destroyed beyond anything we can now pay because BOA sold our loan to a company that received bailout money?  WHY are we the ones to have to pay when our mortgage was NOT modified, was NOT any Fannie or Freddie or under any Hud program or under any program devised from the Obama Admin?  And BOA refuses to talk to you too?

I am taking all documents i have - including these reports -to another banker that is willing to look over at what they have pulled.  When I told him we had nearly $40,000 in equity and it was a 30-year mortgage (the original) and that the balance owned on a $120,000 mortgage was $84,000 (would have been more, but had an ARM because at the time we took out this mortgage, we had another on a house we were still trying to sell).  I am to bring ALL documents - current and those all the way back to our closing documents including promissory notes signed.  but when he heard our equity had been wiped out and instead they created virtually a new loan of not 30 years, but the more expensive and higher payment 20 years, he had one question;  WHERE IS ThE MONEY?  He asked if we had a cash out and i said we received nothing but this headache.  The entire process, and BOA's letter states that when x dollars is paid, the original account would be reinstated AND those payments would bring it current PLUS cover payments THRU October. This was all that was negotiated and no agreements were sent by either party and we signed nothing.  they offered a modification last spring and i refused to sign it and never sent in the agreement, nor the required paperwork.  All I wanted was to catch up on our old mortgage and for all we knew that is exactly what was done.

In looking back at documents going back to last may it looks like what they DID, unknown by us and without any consent or agreement from us, was to use that very modification form I sent back writing this was refused across the front. and I certainly never signed it.  they used that, and the terms in this thing to wipe out our existing mortgage, wipe out all equity, and create a new loan.  now we owe about $8000 MORE than what originally was, have a higher payment, and on 20years.  30 years was never an option and this banker told me considering our income it should have been a requirement.  but he raised a very good question:  WHERE IS THE MONEY?  What happened to the money we had paid down in principle?  And with that, how can this 'new' loan be increased by $8000 of which of course, we now have NOTHING paid on principle.  Everything going to Misc or interest/buydown.  No one still knows what the hell that means and it is increasing.  If payments were to be posted to interest, that should be coming down, yet it is growing.

Hopefully, this other banker (not even from bank of america, but wants to see if he can do or help us in any way) can see what i cannot.  All I know is BOA lays claim and says one thing, where BACS takes action and says quite a different story.  Yet, the two seem not to communicate, and the customer is not allowed to speak with BOA.  Something is seriously wrong and I am pointing the finger right at bacs/countrywide AND BOA.  We are at risk of losing our home to something we never agreed to, consented to, were informed of, and certainly never signed for.

Legal aid only helps those already in trouble of foreclosure - so they cannot help us and even if they could, it no doubt would mean entering into one of these very programs they insist our mortgage is part of and that means raised payments for a shorter duration than is necessary, but most of all - ESCROW!  Yeah - those making home affordable do nothing but make them REAL affordable for those rich investors looking to pick up a foreclosed bargain.  And that is the mission statement behind this legislation.  THAT is how to stimulate the economy.  Cull out the weak (and force them into such a position if not already) so those with resources can get the economy moving again. 

Nice gig if you can get in on it.  Too bad we drew the short straw.  But come hell or high water or both, they will not get away with this. It is too obvious, and their greed and  haste to move along these programs have left many errors and the confusion of our mortgage is but one example.

So keep posting.  I will post the url to my blog where we will have several commentaries and links.  Don't forget to call your Commissioner of Banks.  And like i told our congressional aid this week, 'what you people vote in legislation, you can also repeal it, correct?"

"Yes, Madam'.  We hopefully have one less democratic chair to worry about - thanks to the people of MA.  Between this housing mess and the health care - these colossal failures - we the people have it in our power to right the wrongs.  We can even uncover the corruption behind the closed doors sessions centered around big business and financial misdeeds.  We just have to roar loud enough and be clear in our goal:  We refuse to take anymore of this.  We see right through their tactics and their time is up.

Fight the Good Fight.

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I am one of those unfortunate people that had their Countrywide Mortgage purchased by Bank of America.

I have been fighting to keep my home from going into foreclosure and it's a losing battle.

I am told from Bank of America that I have to deal with Countrywide because they were the ones that received the bailout money for my mortgage.  Therefore, Bank of America will NOT even talk with me about any kind of remodification at all.  They are pissed because Countrywide got the money already so Bank of America is left holding the bag.

This has been a huge injustice and for the life of me I can't think of anything else to do.  Therefore were are definetely going to lose our home to foreclosure.  Meanwhile the only thing I can think to do is to sell everything that isn't nailed down.  I hate to do this, but what else can I do?  They screwed me over...so why can't I screw them over.

I just hope they are happy when they open the front door to my home and find out that there is nothing left except the few bare pieces of wood that are holding up the roof.

It's time these crooked banks get what's coming to them.